Southern Railroad Double-Tracked

The second track for the railroad connecting the city of Ahvaz to the Persian Gulf port of Imam Khomeini—both in southern Khuzestan Province—was inaugurated on Thursday. According to Mohsen Pourseyyed Aqaei, CEO of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, it cost the government 1.05 billion rials ($29.3 million at market exchange rates) to double-track the 160-kilometer route, Mehr News Agency reported. Iran’s railroad authorities in the administration of President Hassan Rouhani started construction of 2,000 kilometers of double-track railroads in 2013, of which “800 kilometers will become operational before the current Iranian fiscal year is out in March 2017,” Aqaei said last month.